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Sunday, March 13, 2016

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Alaska scientists continue researching seabird death mystery

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The common murre on Sarah Schoen's examination table lived a short, hungry life.

FDA says engineered anti-Zika mosquito environmentally safe

(Reuters) - U.S. health regulators said a genetically engineered mosquito being used in the fight against Zika will not have a significant impact on the environment, possibly paving the way for the technique to be used in the country. The self-limiting strain of the Aedes aegypti mosquito was developed by Oxitec, the U.K.-subsidiary of U.S. synthetic biology company Intrexon Corp. The male mosquitoes are modified so their offspring will die before reaching adulthood and being able to reproduce. Preliminary findings of an investigational trial by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration conducted in the Florida Keys region ruled that the genetically modified mosquitoes will not have a significant impact on the environment, effectively agreeing with an environmental assessment submitted by Oxitec.

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Saturday, March 12, 2016

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Intrexon says FDA finds anti-Zika mosquito environmentally safe

(Reuters) - U.S. health regulators said a genetically engineered mosquito being used in the fight against Zika will not have a significant impact on the environment, possibly paving the way for the technique to be used in the country. The self-limiting strain of the Aedes aegypti mosquito was developed by Oxitec, the U.K.-subsidiary of U.S. synthetic biology company Intrexon Corp. The male mosquitoes are modified so their offspring will die before reaching adulthood and being able to reproduce. Preliminary findings from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday agree with the draft environmental assessment submitted by Oxitec, which was spun off from the Oxford University and acquired last year by Intrexon.

Should We Hunt Yellowstone Grizzly Bears? (Op-Ed)

Jon Beckmann is a conservation scientist for the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) North America Program. In the 2015 film "The Revenant," one of the most dramatic scenes pits frontiersman Hugh Glass in a harrowing effort to ward off an attacking grizzly bear — a battle that helped Leonardo DiCaprio win the Oscar for Best Actor.

The Carbon-Fiber Future: It's About More Than Speed (Op-Ed)

Nikhil Gupta is an associate professor, and Steven Zeltmann is a student researcher, in the Composite Materials and Mechanics Laboratory of the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at New York University Tandon School of Engineering.

The Experimenters: Temple Grandin on the Autistic Brain

David Gerlach is the executive producer of "Blank on Blank," which brings new life to classic interviews, and the founder of Quoted Studios, a nonprofit dedicated to animated journalism. Learn more at BlankOnBlank.org.

Astronaut Scott Kelly retiring after longest U.S. space mission

(Reuters) - The astronaut who holds the American record for most time spent in space, Scott Kelly, will retire from NASA on April 1, the U.S. space agency said on Friday. Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko returned to Earth last week after nearly a year on the International Space Station, the longest U.S. space mission on record, intended to pave the way for human travel to Mars. NASA said that after retiring, Kelly, 52, will still work on ongoing research related to his time in space.

Google AI program wins third straight match to take Go series

Google's artificial intelligence (AI) program on Saturday took a 3-0 lead in a five-match series against one of the world's top players of the complicated board game Go. The victory for the AlphaGo program, designed by Google subsidiary DeepMind, over South Korean professional player Lee Sedol, the holder of 18 international titles, has surprised many, including its designers and has underscored advances in AI. "I am very sorry for the powerless display," a dejected Lee told reporters in the South Korean capital, Seoul, after his defeat.

Why Do Uterus Transplants Fail?

On Wednesday (March 9), the Cleveland Clinic announced that its patient who had received a uterus transplant had experienced a sudden complication and that the transplanted organ had to be removed. The transplant was initially performed on Feb. 25, in a 9-hour surgery. So far, there have been 12 uterus transplants in the world, and five were not successful.

Relax, Beached 'Sea Monster' Just a Whale's Head

A large, shapeless, gray mass that recently washed ashore on a Mexican beach had officials and observers alike scratching their heads over what in the world the thing could be. People guessed it might be a giant squid, a type of whale or perhaps some sort of unknown, monstrous creature.

'Ultraprocessed' Foods Make Up More Than Half of Americans' Diets

Calories from "ultraprocessed" foods make up more than half of all calories in the average American diet and account for nearly 90 percent of all added sugars, a new study finds. The researchers also found that the more ultraprocessed foods a person eats, the more likely he or she is to exceed the recommended daily limit for added sugars in the diet, according to the study. Consuming too much added sugar is "most likely contributing" to growing levels of obesity, Type 2 diabetes and heart disease, they added.

World's Fastest Moving Fault Took a U-Turn Eons Ago

The twisting, stretching crust lying beneath New Zealand harbors the world's fastest moving fault, new research suggests. The Alpine Fault, part of the fault zone at the point where the Pacific Plate is diving beneath the Australian Plate, has shifted the two corners of New Zealand's South Island relative to each other a whopping 435 miles (700 kilometers) over the last 25 million years. "I don't think anybody in their wildest dreams would have thought that displacements on the fault could be so large, and also change direction so dramatically through time," study lead author Simon Lamb, a geologist at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, said in a statement.

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Friday, March 11, 2016

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'MyShake' app, a personal tsunami warning system

It turns out the technology in conventional seismological instrumentation exists in every smartphone on the planet. "The idea is if we can harness the accelerometers in those smart phones then we can collect massive amounts of data. It could really revolutionize how we understand earthquakes and earthquake effects," said Richard Allen, the director of the Seismological Laboratory at the University California, Berkeley. Allen and his team have developed a smartphone app called 'MyShake' designed to monitor a phones accelerometer data and send alerts to a central server when seismic activity registers. He says accelerometers in phones are nowhere near as sensitive as conventional instrumentation, but what they lack in sensitivity they make up for in numbers.

New Zika Study Finds Grave Outcomes for Some Pregnant Women

Some pregnant women with Zika virus tend not to fare well, and neither do their fetuses, a new study finds. The researchers studied 88 pregnant women in Rio de Janeiro from September 2015 through February 2016, according to the study, published Friday (March 4) in the The New England Journal of Medicine.

'MyShake' app, a personal tsunami warning system

Scientists find 'good' cholesterol can sometimes be bad

By Ben Hirschler LONDON (Reuters) - So-called "good" cholesterol may actually increase heart attack risks in some people, researchers said on Thursday, a discovery that casts fresh doubt on drugs designed to raise it. High density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol is generally associated with reduced heart risks, since it usually offsets the artery-clogging effects of the low density (LDL) form. "Our results indicate that some causes of raised HDL actually increase risk for heart disease," said lead researcher Daniel Rader of the University of Pennsylvania.

Spacecraft to seek life on Mars in European-led mission

The craft, part of the European-Russian ExoMars program, is to lift off from the Baikonur spaceport in Kazakhstan on board a Proton rocket at 5:31 A.M. EDT (0931 GMT) on Monday, starting a seven-month journey through space. It will carry an atmospheric probe that will study trace gases, such as methane, around Mars as well as a lander that will test technologies needed for a rover due to follow in 2018. U.S. space agency NASA's Mars rover Curiosity in late 2014 found spurts of methane gas in the planet's atmosphere, a chemical that on Earth is strongly tied to life.

Packing Lunches for Space: Scientists Talk Astronaut Health on 1-Year Mission

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko are back on Earth after spending a record 340 days on the International Space Station. Last Friday (March 4), a group of NASA scientists fielded questions from the public about Kelly and Kornienko's extended stay on the station, during a Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA). The scientists discussed specific questions about the physical and metal toll that spaceflight can have on humans — questions they will have to answer before NASA can safely send humans to Mars or other distant locations.

Intrexon says FDA finds anti-Zika mosquito environmentally safe

(Reuters) - A genetically engineered mosquito being used in the fight against Zika will not have a significant impact on the environment, the maker Intrexon Corp said, citing preliminary findings from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Males of the self-limiting strain of the Aedes aegypti mosquito are modified so their offspring die before being able to reproduce, says Intrexon, a U.S. synthetic biology company. Zika, carried by mosquitoes, has been linked to a spike in microcephaly, a rare birth defect, as well as Guillain-Barre syndrome, which can cause paralysis.

Birth Date May Influence Child's Risk for ADHD Diagnosis

The researchers found that preschool and school-age children who were born in August had an increased risk of being diagnosed with ADHD and receiving medication for it compared to their classmates who were born in September. Because the cutoff birth date for entering school in Taiwan is August 31, children born in August are typically the youngest in their grades, while children born in September are typically the oldest.

Stunning New 'Drowned Apostles' Discovered on Seafloor

A bevy of limestone towers, dubbed the "Drowned Apostles," have been discovered beneath the waves off the coast of Australia. The discovery may mark the first time scientists have uncovered limestone pillars, called sea stacks, below the water's surface. "Sea stacks are always eroding, as we saw with the one that collapsed in 2005, so it is hugely surprising that any could be preserved at that depth of water," David Kennedy, a geographer at the University of Melbourne in Australia, said in a statement.

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Thursday, March 10, 2016

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Aaaaaaah, Really? You Would Die If You Didn't Sigh

Now, researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and Stanford University have identified the source of sighing, which they classify as a life-sustaining reflex that prevents air sacs located in the lungs, called alveoli, from collapsing. "A human lung has as much surface area as a tennis court, and so that's all folded inside your chest," study co-author Jack Feldman, a professor of neurobiology at UCLA, told Live Science. "The way that nature did it is that there's 500 million little air sacs called alveoli.

Surfers Invent Floating Trash Bin to Clean Up World's Oceans

Two Australian surfers are trying to tackle the planet's water pollution problem head-on, by developing a device that functions as an automated floating trash bin for the world's oceans. The device, called the Seabin, can be placed in the water, attached to a floating dock in a marina, and is connected to an onshore water pump.

Mastication adaptation: easier chewing benefited human ancestors

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A study in which people chewed on pieces of raw goat meat and vegetables smacked with a rock is shedding light on how changes long ago in the way our ancestors dined paved the way for physiological advances that helped make us who were are today. Scientists said on Wednesday the advent of meat-eating combined with the use of simple tone tools to make food easier to consume meant that members of the human lineage about 2.5 million years ago all of a sudden had less need for chewing. Without needing to spend much of the day chewing food as chimpanzees do, our ancestors underwent significant evolutionary changes, acquiring smaller teeth, jaws and chewing muscles while losing the snout possessed by their predecessors.

Stephen Hawking joins 150 top scientists calling for Britain to stay in EU

Stephen Hawking has joined more than 150 top scientists in calling for Britain to stay in the European Union, saying that leaving would be "a disaster for UK science and universities". The physicist and other members of the Royal Society, including three Nobel laureates, made the case against Brexit, as leaving is widely called, in a letter to The Times on Thursday.

Stephen Hawking joins 150 top scientists calling for Britain to stay in EU

How Often Do Big Fireballs Blaze Up in Earth's Sky?

A fireball exploded over the south Atlantic Ocean on Feb. 6 in the most powerful such event since February 2013, when a similar "airburst" injured more than 1,200 people in the Russian city of Chelyabinsk. Meteors burn up in Earth's atmosphere every day, but most are small and therefore fly completely under the radar. Fireballs as dramatic as the Feb. 6 event — which was caused by an object estimated to be 16 to 23 feet (5 to 7 meters) wide — occur about once every two to three years, according to Peter Brown, a professor at the University of Western Ontario in Canada and a member of the Western Meteor Physics Group.

Ancient Roman Tavern Found Littered with Patrons' Drinking Bowls

One of France's earliest-known Roman taverns is still littered with drinking bowls and animal bones, even though more than 2,000 years have passed since it served patrons, a new archaeological study finds. The finding is a valuable one, said study co-researcher Benjamin Luley, a visiting assistant professor of anthropology and classics at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania. Before the Romans invaded the south of France, in 125 B.C., a culture speaking the Celtic language lived there and practiced its own customs.

Ripe Old Age: SeaWorld's Killer Whale Tilikum Near Death at 35

The killer whale named Tilikum, who made headlines after killing his trainer at SeaWorld in 2010, has a respiratory infection that may ultimately take the orca's life, at age 35. Tilikum's health has declined during the past few weeks, likely because of a drug-resistant bacterial infection in his lungs, officials said. "Tilikum's behavior has become increasingly lethargic, and the SeaWorld veterinary and animal care teams are concerned that his health is beginning to deteriorate," SeaWorld Cares said in the statement.

New 'LightningStrike' Plane Will Take Off, Hover & Land Vertically

DARPA, the government agency charged with developing new military technologies, awarded a contract to Aurora Flight Sciences Corp. to design a new vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft, the company announced March 3. Aurora was one of four companies competing in the first phase of DARPA's VTOL Experimental Plane (X-Plane) program. The other competing companies were The Boeing Co., Karem Aircraft Inc., and Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., according to DARPA.

Robots welcome visitors to Berlin travel fair

By Victoria Bryan BERLIN (Reuters) - Chihira Kanae is greeting visitors to the world's biggest travel fair in Berlin this week, answering questions and guiding people in the right direction. The Marriott hotel in Ghent has been trialling Mario, using him to hand out room keys, high-five guests and liven up meetings held in the hotel by reading out presentations.

Africa must spend more on science research to halt brain drain, lift growth - scientists

By Kieran Guilbert DAKAR (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A lack of investment in science is stunting Africa's growth, driving engineers, researchers and scientists abroad and depriving the continent of billions of dollars each year, the founder of a landmark conference said on Thursday. Africa loses $4 billion a year by outsourcing jobs in science, technology, engineering and maths, the so-called STEM fields, to foreign professionals, said Thierry Zomahoun, chairman and founder of the Next Einstein Forum (NEF). ...

First Uterus Transplant in US Has Failed Due to Complications

The Cleveland Clinic first announced the uterus transplant on Feb. 25. "There is a known risk in solid organ transplantation that the transplanted organ may have to be removed should a complication arise.

Scientists find 'good' cholesterol can sometimes be bad

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